SAP FI

General Ledger
Oktober 2017
 Table of Contents

 GL Overview
 Sub Processes

Master Data
Transaction Processing
Account Analysis / Reconciliation
Periodic Processing
Reporting
Financial Accounting / Controlling
 Financial Accounting
• Legal / Statutory Accounts
• Standard Ledgers
• Master Data Integrates with Controlling
 Controlling
• Management Accounts
• Manage Budget Expenditure
 General Ledger - Integration
 The general ledger holds all accounts for balance sheet and income
(profit and loss) statements.
 The general ledger contains a number of sub ledgers:
 Accounts Payable records all accounting transactions for dealings
with suppliers. Much of its data is obtained from procurement
(Materials Management).
 Accounts Receivable records all accounting transactions for
dealings with customers. Much of its data is obtained from Sales
and Distribution.
 Asset Accounting records all accounting transactions relating to the
management of assets.
 Bank ledger supports the posting of cash flows.
 All general ledger account postings that post to business expense
accounts automatically send the expenses as costs to Controlling. The
balances of general ledger accounts are used to calculate financial
statements.
 A Group Hierarchical Structure
Company A Group

A Grp Common
Chart of Accounts Chart of Accounts
(YCCA)

Company Codes A Ltd (9100)

A1 Ltd (9200)

Financial Management Area A Grp FM Area

(9100)
 Chart of Accounts
 The Chart of Accounts
• Contains the definitions of
COA all G/L accounts in an
“YCCA” ordered form
• Each general ledger is set
up according to a Chart of
Accounts
• Many company codes may
use the same COA
Company Code Company Code
• All A Grp. organizational
9200 A1 Ltd
9100 A Ltd units use the same Chart of
Accounts: YCCA.
 Company Code
 Company Code
• It is an independent accounting entity. A company code is assigned
to a chart of accounts.
• Each company code in A Group uses the G/L accounts from only
one chart of accounts for account validation. This is called the
operating chart of accounts.
• A chart of accounts can be used by multiple companies provided
they have the same basic account requirements.
 General Ledger Process Overview
Financial
Accounting

General
Ledger

Master Transaction Account Periodic Reporting

Data Processing Analysis & Processing
Reconciliation
 Master Data
• Account Groups
• Maintenance
• Creation at 2 Levels
• Chart of Accounts Data
• Company Code Data
• Change
• Block
• Delete
• Cost Elements
• Creation
 GL Account Groups
A Grp COA Number Interval

YCCA AA 120001 120299 Fixed Assets Accounts

YCCA CASH 110000 118999 Liquid Funds Accounts

YCCA EXP 400000 499999 Expense Accounts

YCCA G.BS 100000 399999 General Balance Sheet Accounts

YCCA MAT 100000 899999 Material Management Accounts

YCCA REV 800000 899999 Revenue Accounts

Account Groups
 GL Account Master Record
GL MASTER

Chart Of Accounts Company Code

SEGMENT SEGMENT

•Account number •Account currency

•GL description •Field Status group
 Blocking of G/L Accounts

G/L Accounts are blocked at two levels

• Chart of Accounts level
• Company Code level
In Chart of accounts you block
• A master from creating in the Company Code
• An account for posting
In Company Code you block
• An account for posting

NOTE: You can set or cancel the posting indicator at any time
 Mark G/L Accounts for Deletion

G/L Accounts are not physically deleted without taking

preparatory steps
• Mark it for Deletion
• Specify that record must be archived
• Archive the transaction data attached to that master record
• Execute the G/L deletion program
 Chart of Accounts
A Grp Chart of Accounts - YCCA

Financial Accounting Controlling

1 Assets
2 Liabilities
3 Equity
4 Expense Accounts 4 Primary Cost elements
8 Revenue Accounts 8 Revenue elements
9 Secondary Cost elements
 General Ledger Process Overview
Financial
Accounting

General
Ledger

Master Transaction Account Periodic Reporting

Data Processing Analysis & Processing
Reconciliation
 Transaction Processing
SAP R/3 supports the following transactions:
• Journal (JV) Processing
• Document Principle
• Document Structure
• Foreign Currency documents
• Parked documents
• Posting with Reference
• Reversing / Canceling documents
 Document Posting: Activity Flow

Create G/L Create G/L Posting Post Manual

account posting Fast Entry Journal

Holding an incomplete
document
Simulate No
(Enough Info
to Complete Posting?)
Create/Display a Parked
Document
Yes

Posted Entry Post/Release a

Parked Document
 The Accounting Documents
Document No: 123456
Header Date: 6/5/1000x
Company Code: 5200
Currency: US$ ,,,,

Debit Credit

1,000,000
800,000 Line items
200,000

Total: 1,000,000 1,000,000

 Each document consists of two segments: header and line items.

 After posting it receives a unique document number.
 A Grp. will use the standard document types of SAP. The system
assigns the document numbers automatically.
 Document Number Ranges
Each type of document is assigned to a number range.
• The document number range is the key which identifies each document in a
company code and defines the allowable range in which a document number must
be positioned and cannot overlap.
• The document number range has to be defined for the year in which it is used.
Document number ranges can be defined:
– Until a fiscal year in the future: At the beginning of each
fiscal year the system continues to take the next number
after the “current number”. It does not restart at the
lower limit.
– Per fiscal year: At the beginning of each fiscal year the
document numbering starts again at the lower limit. This
helps to avoid reaching the upper limit of a range.
• One number range can be assigned to several document types.
 The Document’s Header
• Dates:
• Document Date,
• Posting Date,
• Translation Date,
• Entry Date (automatic),
• Period.
• Document Type
• Company Code
• Currency
• Additional information:
• Reference,
• Short text.
 Line items

 During document entry, certain fields need to be

filled in. For example, when posting expenses, a
cost center and tax information is usually
required.
 Tax fields are only ready for entry if the general
ledger account is set up as tax-relevant.
 Posting a document

Document entered
correctly

Posting functions

 You can now:

 Simulate your document - press the “Simulate” button:
 Or post it immediately - press “Save” button (F11)
 Posting in Foreign Currency
Local currency - Functional currency of the company code
Document currency - Currency of the document
Group currency - Alternative currency for group reporting

 For every Company Code there’s defined a company code currency, ie,
every company code has a “local” currency.
 Every document, posted in different currency than company code
currency, is processed as a foreign currency document.
 Accounting documents can be posted in a foreign currency
 The foreign currency is converted to local currency and both are stored
in the document along with the exchange rate
 Posting in Foreign Currency
1.

2.

3.

1. Exchange rate can be entered manually,

2. Or derived from “Exchange Rates Table”
3. System automatically translates the foreign currency
into CC currency.
Parking / Holding a Document
 After entering the document it is possible:
• To post it immediately
• To “park” the document
• To hold the document
 Reference Documents
Document # 1 (Reference Document):
Header: 01/03/2003 Comp. Code: 5200

Line Items:
PK Account Amount
40 123000 5000
50 345560 2000
50 907902 3000

Document # 2:

Line Items:
PK Account Amount
40 123000 5000
50 345560 2000
50 907902 3000

 Reference documents are either accounting documents or sample

documents that are used as a reference to post an accounting document.
Reverse a GL document

Document entered incorrectly

Document corrected by Reversal:

Reverse with a standard reversal
posting
Reverse with a negative posting

Document re-entered correctly

 Mass Reversal of Documents

Mass Reversal
Procedure

 Many documents may be reversed at the same time,

 Process may be scheduled to be performed in the background.
 General Ledger Process Overview
Financial
Accounting

General
Ledger

Master Transaction Account Periodic Reporting

Data Processing Analysis & Processing
Reconciliation
 Account Analysis / Reconciliation
SAP R/3 supports the following transactions:
Display G/L account balance
Display G/L line items
G/L account analysis functions
Clear outstanding items on G/L account
 Account: balance and line items

Account balance
 Account Balances display
• Opening Balance (Carry forward Balance from previous year)
• Totals of all transactions for each posting period broken down for
• Debits and Credits

 From these figures the system calculates the following for the
account balance function
• Balance per posting period
• Accumulated balance for the account
 Account: balance and line items

Line items

 Line items can be displayed on G/L accounts which are managed

with Line Item display
• Line items are displayed on-line
• Line Items can be totaled and sorted according to user requirements
• Additional fields can be added to the Line Item display screen
• Alternative custom defined Line Layouts can be defined
 Account Analysis Functions

 Functions supporting
account analysis are
grouped on the
“Application toolbar”
 Open Item clearing
Open items are incomplete transactions, such as an invoice
for which goods or services have not yet been received.
• In order for an open item transaction to be considered
complete, the transaction must be cleared. A transaction
is considered cleared when an offset value is posted to it,
so that the resulting balance of the items is zero.
• In the above example:
– Two invoices are posted to the Customer account. These
invoices are regarded as the open items because at this point
the corresponding payment has not been received.
– The payment is received and the invoices are set off against it.
– The transaction is now cleared and the resulting balance is
zero.
 Reversal of Clearing

Display cleared items

Reversal of clearing

 Reversal of documents that were cleared before is not possible,

 First the clearing operation must be reset.
 General Ledger Process Overview
Financial
Accounting

General
Ledger

Master Transaction Account Periodic Reporting

Data Processing Analysis & Processing
Reconciliation
 Period End Processing
SAP R/3 supports the following transactions:
Fiscal Year variants & Posting Period
Clear open items, both manually and automatically
Create, maintain and process accrual/deferral transactions
Recurring Entries
Revalue balances in foreign currencies
Reconciliation of documents with monthly debits & credits
Roll over of closing balances to form opening balances can be
performed multiple times and after the beginning of the new fiscal year.
 Posting Periods
Company Code Data Fiscal Year Variants
Company Code 0001 K4 Same as Calendar Year
FY Variant R1 R1 Shortened Fiscal Year
V3 Non-Calendar Fiscal Year

Calendar Year
Year 2003
Properties Periods
FY Variants R1 FY Variants R1
Calendar Year Mo. Day Period Year
Year-Dependent C 01 31 10 -1
No. of Post. Per. 12 02 28 11 -1
No. of Special Per. 2 03 31 12 -1
04 30 01
:
12 31 09

 Every transaction that is posted is

assigned to a particular posting
period
 GL Account Clearing
 A typical example of an open item is, for instance, a bank clearing
account.
 A transaction is cleared when an offset value is posted to an item or
group of items, so that the resulting balance of the items is zero.
 Automatic Clearing Program
Open items for G/L Accounts, Vendors and Customers can be
cleared automatically by running the Clearing Program
Set up predefined criteria for automatic clearing (Configuration)
Program groups those items from an account that have the same
• Trading Partner ID
• Reconciliation Number
• Currency in which the General Ledger is updated
• Four freely definable criteria

Accounts
xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Automatic clearing
program
 Deferrals & Accruals
• Accruals and deferrals can be handled automatically by the SAP R/3 system
• Accrual/Deferral Documents are created on a monthly basis to record
expenses/income which were anticipated but not yet realized
• Once a transaction has been approved, it can be set up and run automatically
each month.
• The recurring entry program helps to maintain Accruals / Deferrals postings
• Standard Journal Posting
• Has a reversing date
• Reversal Date can be any date in the future
• Monthly job is scheduled to reverse all Accrual/Deferral Documents automatically
 Recurring Entry Document
•Recurring entries are very effective in streamlining data processing for
transactions that occur on a regular basis.
•To save time and streamline month-end processing, you use recurring
entries to post these transactions.
Recurring Entry Document (2)
Dates when the first and the last recurring entries are to be
carried out

Document ‘s
Header

Line items
 General Ledger Process Overview
Financial
Accounting

General
Ledger

Master Transaction Account Periodic Reporting

Data Processing Analysis & Processing
Reconciliation
 Reporting
• SAP system offers number of reports that help
analyzing entered business transactions:
• Financial Statement Version (Balance Sheet and P&L)
• Account Balances
• Line Items
• Documents
• Master Data
• Report can be:
• Printed out directly to the printer,
• Saved as a local file (txt format, Excel file etc.)
• Sent by e-mail
 Reporting Requirements

Balance Cash
Sheet Flow FI
Income
External Reporting Statement

CO
Internal Reporting

Product
Cost Profit
Cost
Center Center
 Financial Statement Version
Financial Statement Versions are set up to represent the balance
sheet and P+L statement according to your own specific requirements
• Can be created for different legal entities
• Can be created in different Languages
• Are executed in desired currency i.e. Local, Group

Using the Financial Statement you specify

• Line items to be included in the Financial Statement
• Sequence the line items are displayed
• The COA and the accounts that are displayed in the Financial Statement
• The totals that are presented on the Financial Statement
 Report Tree
1

SAP Menu

Transaction SA38

 A user can run the required report in two ways:

• Directly from “Report Tree”
• Using transaction SA38, provided the he knows the report name
 Report Tree
1

SAP Menu

Transaction SA38

 A user can run the required report in two ways:

• Directly from “Report Tree”
• Using transaction SA38, provided the he knows the report name
 Report Execution
Report Execution

Selection of Report Parameters

Variant Selection Dynamic selection

 A report can be executed directly or scheduled in the

background
 Report Variant
2 2) Click “Save” button

1) Enter the required

1 criteria on the selection
screen

3) Enter the variant’s

3 name
 General Ledger Process Overview
Financial  Process decompositions are the starting
Accounting
point for our process documentation.
 They summarise what is involved in a
the GL process at a high level
General
Ledger

Master Transaction Account Periodic Reporting

Data Processing Analysis & Processing
Reconciliation